Swiss move to End Bank Proprietary Trading
While Goldman Sachs is trying to launch TV ads championing their efforts to fund companies, they still cling to their proprietary trading. Now in Switzerland both the right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP) and the left-wing are mounting a new efforts to end proprietary trading in UBS and Credit Swiss by breaking up the banks. The Lower-house lawmakers on Monday submitted 3 motions all aimed at separating investment banking activities from traditional banking.
Proprietary Trading among the banks is now under collapse. This ran the full cycle of 31.4 years and banking is now moving back to the more traditional role. The repeal of Glass-Steagall was the worse possible thing done spearheaded by Robert Rubin of Goldman Sachs. But even worse, they then used the US Treasury to export that through the World Trade Organization to broaden their scope of proprietary trading worldwide. The sever damage the NY Bankers have cause is monumental besides controlling the Department of Justice and the Judiciary to ensure that they would never be charges with anything they ever do. The end is now here. Stay away from those banks involved in proprietary trading. They will go into meltdown after 2015.75.
War Bullish or Bearish?
Many people are talking about a stock market crash when Obama invades Syria. When we look at that historically, war does not create a major decline in stocks. Here is a chart of the Dow for the Gulf War in 1991. The market rallied after Congress authorized force. The idea that people will dump stocks and move to a flight to quality being bonds. That flight to quality is not likely to take place and we are in a very interesting position because this event may begin the decoupling of bonds as the target of such a flight. When governments have lost credibility in the debt markets, corporate bonds will be far more secure than government.
There is NO DOUBT that Obama is fighting very hard for this authority against a 59% poll against him and a 69% poll that shows American do not believe this has anything to do with national security. Obama could care less about what the people want since he will not run again. But this will have an important impact upon the 2016 elections because Obama is not trying to do a single strike and leave the Syrian government intact. He is out to remove the government purely for the pipeline. This will be an escalating event – not a single strike. If it was to be a limited single strike, Obama would back-off. What he is counting on is for a retaliation from Syria and that may take the form of an attack on an American ship. Russia get the chance to test its systems against the Americans using the cover of Syria. It is a win win for them – live target practice.
However, Syria is not a key oil producer. It is needed for the pipeline. Syria has historically been important for that is where the Silk Road took you from Ancient times. It is the crossroads between Egypt and Europe. If I were Putin, I would be using this as a great way to flex muscles against its main enemy – America. Obama is either brain-dead or recognizes the real risks of attacking Syria for its supports would love a free shot at the USA. With 59% of Americans against this nonsense, Obama seems desperate to do this at any price. He is counting on retaliation and that will be the excuse to expand the war.
Confiscation of Pensions – How Syria is Setting the Stage.
The US is dependent upon selling debt to someone. This Sovereign Debt Crisis has made the US vulnerable for it really cannot act unilaterally in international affairs as Obama is attempting. The USA is dependent upon selling its debt with about 40% being held internationally. Obama’s policies come at tremendous cost to the economy long-term. Those in government are NOT long-term strategic in their decision-making at the very least. They only consider where to place their foot for the next step. There is absolutely no long-term management at all. What do we have to do to win this one? They do not connect the dots. What direction they are walking in is never considered.
This Syrian crisis is far more serious than people realize long-term. The US is actually slitting its own throat. How can you expect other nations to buy your debt when you act like a rogue crazy nation? They are incapable of connecting the dots. Government does not think rationally or dynamically. This is always linear and they cannot see to the left or right. Just listen to the nonsense coming out of Kerry’s mouth and compare that to what he said about Vietnam. He stands for nothing. It is only the immediate issue in front of him. This is why people like that are in government. They cannot really amount to much in the private sector for they cannot function dynamically.
There are those in government who have recognized that the US is now dependent upon foreign capital to function. Just like Russia has Europe in the palm of its hand with energy, China has the USA in its grip with debt. This is why some in government have their eye on your pension funds. This is not bullshit. It is national security in their mind. Behind the Curtain they are looking at this seriously as a backup. They follow what other countries do. Argentina got away with seizing pension funds. Brazil just took the zeros off of people accounts years ago. When the US cannot sell its debt anymore, they will confiscate your pensions. With $17 trillion in such funds they can stuff the whole national debt in there and the problem is solved.
This is the real danger of Syria besides Putin standing in the way. Putin is smart. The USA has fallen from grace. Its refusal to ever do anything against the NY Bankers after they created the 2007-2011 recession and the world suffered. The bankers became the UNTOUCHABLES and this viewed outside the USA is the collapse in respect and trust. Then there were no WMDs in Iraq. Add to this the fact the NSA bugging the UN, European Parliament and who knows what else. The USA has seen its image as the savior of the world being transformed into the arrogant EVIL EMPIRE. Those in government have no mirror so they cannot see their own image.
The first rule of business is you NEVER deal with someone you do not trust because contracts mean nothing. This was explained to the government prosecutor Samuel Untermyer by J.P. Morgan who he hauled before Congress to interrogate him. Untermyer was a low-life prosecutor who understood nothing about the economy and his questioning of Morgan illustrated that point. The USA cannot grasp that this unilateral attack on Syria will set in motion the next stage of the Sovereign Debt Crisis that will ultimately lead to your pensions being confiscated when they cannot sell their debt to foreign governments.
If the US attacks Syria, they will then be subjected to years of retaliation by countless groups. The USA is becoming truly hated. Even the domestic polls show that 69% of Americans do not support Obama. No president ever was elected with that high of a number – not even FDR who won in 1932 with 57%. That does not matter to Obama. They count on American forgetting this by the next election. This is how they think. It is a shame. But this is what we get when people without ANY practical experience assume the reigns of power.
Agencies Never Obey the “LAW”
QUESTION: Agents are simply free to interpret law as they desire? They can seize even gold in a safe deposit box?
ANSWER: Sorry to say – YES! (see Lack of Rule of Law Destroys Business). They are not doing it yet – but they are laying the ground work for that. It is unlikely that they will actually enact a law. It will come as an interpretation. Congress enacts a law, but judges then interpret what they THINK it means. CongressNEVER made income tax worldwide. Prosecutors and judges did that withinterpretation.
Take insider trading. Originally a director of a company KNEW the company was bankrupt during the Great Depression. So he withheld that info until he sold his shares and then announced the fate to the world. Rudy Giuliani was a prosecutor who made his name on destroying Michael Milken and Drexel Burnham. He flipped the law on its head and said if you and I were going to take over GE, a third person is DEFRAUDED out of the same opportunity to make money. That is nonsense. Insider Trading is abused and it only applies under the SEC. Having an edge on information in bonds, currency, or commodities is NOT a crime because they are different agencies. Uner the Constitution, Milken was denied Equal Protection of the Law. You cannot make the same act illegal under one agency yet legal under another. Then Congress exempted itself from the insider trading laws. The outrage forced a revision.
Even the NSA refuses to be restrained. There is nothing we can do. This is the system. We do not have any control over agencies and courts no less Congress. We are victims of their greed.